And how does he square the reality that his friend's family enterprises executed over a thousand transactions with the Ministry of Defence during Mira's tenure - with a 99 percent of them designed to slide right under the ten-thousand-dollar threshold?
Even though the screenshots prove it - Perez called those allegations and says he will hold off on any comments until an audit is concluded:
Andre Perez - Minister of the Blue Economy
"Listen, we have—we have a very small ministry and we do not engage in these things. No split payments, we don't make those payments as far as I am concerned. Actually, I want to tell you that I have double-checked with my office, checked with my CEOs and everything, and they said we are fine. And I said thank you very much because I am telling you, I speak for my ministry, we are transparent and we are not engaging in any split payments as such."
Reporter
"This was the first time you were hearing that was possible?"
Andre Perez - Minister of the Blue Economy
"Actually, I have never really gotten into what are the line items and what is the paying through SmartStream. I don't have the details so I don't want to comment on split payments as such, so I have no idea what it is."
Reporter
"You understand the concern from the public though and how bad it looks?"
Andre Perez - Minister of the Blue Economy
"You know, again I go back to these allegations. It is the optic that is looking out there, but I do not know the details of it. So again, the media is out there putting out the optics and it is not looking good, and that is about it. I can't comment beyond that."
